AUGUST 4, 2003

Jordan's case "without foundation"

Mr Justice Langley has delivered his judgement on the Jordan-Vodafone case and has condemned it as being "without foundation and false".

The judge said that there was an "inherent improbability of an agreement of such a nature for payments of such a size being made in such a manner" and said that the inherent improbability of the case "was more than fully matched by the reality".

Jordan was claiming $150m from Vodafone, claiming that a deal had been verbally with David Haines, the global branding director of Vodafone. Vodafone said that it had held discussions with several F1 teams in 2001, but said that it did not commit to any team before signing the current deal with Ferrari.

On Friday the judge said that Jordan had chosen to make serious allegations about Vodafone and that his judgement should therefore be heard.